Curtis Brown scored a rebound goal from the slot 2:12 into overtime after Mark Bell had a big third-period tiebreaker as two newcomers led the Sharks to a wild 5-4 win over the St. Louis Blues at a sold-out HP Pavilion on Thursday night.

"I'm happy for the newer guys who contributed a lot," coach Ron Wilson said. "Scoring goals kind of welcomes them into the Sharks family."

Brown, a free-agent signing, lifted a shot over Blues goalie Manny Legace, who made a stop on rookie defenseman Matt Carle moments earlier. Steve Bernier, who threw his body around forechecking all night, fed Carle from behind the net to key the play.

"I was just happy to be hanging around for the rebound," Brown said. "It happened pretty fast."

St. Louis sent the game into sudden death when Bill Guerin deflected a Keith Tkachuk drive past Sharks goalie Vesa Toskala with 5.6 seconds left in regulation. The Blues had their goalie pulled for an extra attacker and the Sharks were further shorthanded because Ville Nieminen lost his stick early in the sequence.

It caped a bizarre third period that featured an 18-minute delay to repair a hole in the boards, referee Rob Martell taking a puck in the eye and Bernier denied a tie-breaking goal thanks to video review.

"That was one of the longest games I've ever played," Brown said.

"We managed to find a way to win with the distractions of the delays and such," Wilson added. "We still stayed focused."

Bell, acquired in a trade with Chicago, scored his tie-breaking goal at 14:18 on a play that was made by linemate Jonathan Cheechoo. The league's defending goal-scoring champ stripped Blues defenseman Eric Brewer at the visitors' blue line, got the puck back from Joe Thornton and dished to an open Bell who beat out-of-position Legace with a wrist shot from the right circle.

"We had a couple of boo-boos in our own end and we'd love to have those back," Blues coach Mike Kitchen said. "I think we can all learn from it."

Milan Michalek scored two 5-on-3 goals within 46 seconds early in the second period to give the Sharks their first lead of the season at 3-2, but the Blues got one late in a special-teams' filled middle period.

Wilson deployed five forwards, including Patrick Marleau and Cheechoo on the points usually manned by defensemen, when San Jose was presented with a two-man advantage at 5:10. The Sharks capitalized when Thornton's shot bounced free in the crease and Michalek punched home his first of the season at 6:11 for a 2-2 tie.

St. Louis captain Dallas Drake protested too long, drawing an unsportsmanlike penalty, and Wilson sent the same five skaters out for more 5-on-3. This time Michalek, positioned in the same spot, redirected a Thornton drive past Legace at 6:57 for the lead.

"We haven't even practiced that, which goes to show sometimes it's better to just go out there and try it," Wilson said of the unusual set-up. "And we still have snipers on the bench. There's a lot of firepower out there. You have to take advantage of it."

San Jose, which enjoyed the only five power plays of the first 30 minutes, killed the Blues initial 5-on-4 but got caught on the ice as the visitors eventually tied it at even strength. Penalty-killing forwards Mike Grier and Cheechoo were out of gas and virtual spectators as a double-deflection goal -- with Lee Stempniak getting his stick on the puck last -- slipped past a screened Toskala at 13:48.

The Sharks outshot the Blues 15-10 in the opening 20 minutes but lacked a finishing touch. St. Louis scored a pair of early opportunistic goals then spent a majority of the final 15 minutes of the session skating backward and defending its zone.

"I think we were guilty of trying to do too much at times," Wilson said. "We don't even practice some of the (longer) passes we were making."